Has anyone ever purchased fish on-line?

This is a discussion on Has anyone ever purchased fish on-line? within the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
I'm not contemplating this as of right now, but I am curious. It sounds like a way to receive a very stressed-out fish and ...

iI used to do it all the time(and will be doing it again some time soon) before I slowed down on fish buying.
I Like it But Many People do not.The Reason that I like it is that I Know the Owner of the site and he always gives me good Quality.

I've never done it myself for the same reasons you mentioned. And just talk to the people who work at the pet stores how their fish show up from shipping. Of course some fish handle it much better than others so I wouldn't entirely rule it out. Another prohibitive factor is the shipping cost. You're still paying retail prices and covering the shipping costs. A lot of LFSs will order in fish for you with their regular shipments and it'll end up costing less generally speaking.

IMO you shouldnt. There are many times where you can get ripped off and sending back the fish after it died can be a hassle. Also you have no way of finding out if there tanks are clean or anything. You cant chose what fish either.

Personal Opinion.
I like it cause I Know The guy that i buy From and have seen his tanks in person. and yes I would VERY STRONGLY suggest a Quarintine and possibly some stressed out fish. And so far I have Never Received a HUGE Shipping Bill or a Dead Fish.
But Like I said Before...Personal Opinion.

I did it once and it was a 50:50 game. 4 fish are still living in my saltwater tank and 4 died in the first week. The same happened with two corals. They arrived dead.

I ordered my fish at liveaquaria.com and they did not want to get the dead fish back or wanted to see a picture.
IÂ´ve still got a credit on file but I donÂ´t want to order again. Maybe someday some freshwater plants for the other tanks but no - I wonÂ´t order alive animals again.

It actually depends on whom the company serves to become a courier to carry the packages you ordered. Some couriers often get careless and most likely will damage the products you buy but you can have it complained to the company and seek replacement for the damaged products although it may depend on their policies.

Lioness, since you are in UK, I have heard Trimar is good at delivering the fish you ordered. Can't go wrong with what Kate said about Trimar who delivered her gold sevs.:)

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Thanks Saz, I was very relieved when they arrived in healthy condition. I ordered them from TRIMAR, and they came in a huge sealed polystyrene box, in very large double bags of water, wrapped in loads of newspaper and with heatpads to keep the water at the correct temperature.

The two fish were in seperate bags.

I was very impressed with the packing - and if I was ever wanting a fish which wasn't available in my area again I wouldn't hesitate to use Trimar.

For plants, Greenline might be your answer if ever you need it. Judging from what the people in UK say, plants are soaked in copper sulfate so you might have to soak them in the water for awhile to remove any residues of copper sulfate. Copper sulfate can be dangerous even to the fish.

Its not freshwater but.....we have bought saltwater fish online (which are more delicate than most freshwater). We did not have any problem with them at all, no ich or anything. And they are thriving today. We bought ours from liveaquaria, and given the chance i would do it again.

It is less stressfull going from the dealer so to speak to your tank. As opposed to going from the dealer to the delivery man to the LFS and then to your tank at home.

It all depends on who you buy from. Im not a fan of site like liveaquaria but there are private sellers that do this for a living and are amazing. For the taste in fish i have my lfs cant get in what i want and most have never heard of the species im looking for so online is where i have to go.